Whatever the former worst commentary was, Chris Berman just shattered the record. Sunday night, basking in Brett Favre's miraculous game winning pass, Berman reflected on Favre's year in New York. He said that the Jets' current success should be attributed to Favre's presence there a year ago. He said, "Favre taught them...He taught them about winning."

He actually said that.
If I were a member of the Jets organization, I'd be extremely offended. Is there no shame from the Favre-ophiles? Is there no limit to their inanity? Are we really expected to believe that this single human, well known for his insistence his job was not to teach his younger teammates, is responsible for three wins by a former team? This is a team with a new coach, mostly new staff, new rookie quarterback, and a significantly upgraded defense. It's a team of professional athletes and coaches accustomed to winning their entire lives.

published on 9/29/2009

By
Brian Burke

15 Responses to “Worst NFL Commentary of All Time”

Peter King said something about as bad in his MMQB article today. It was along the lines of Minnesota would have lost the game against SF had it not been for Favre. To suggest that he knows how 60 minutes of play would have unfolded with a different QB leading the team insults my intelligence.

Finally someone else who agrees with me on this matter. But bear up Brian - it will only get worse with the upcoming Monday night game. I'm seriously considering avoiding all sports media for the next two weeks. Because you know that if Minn wins, Favre will be the greatest thing since, oh I don't want to say it. And if Green Bay wins, well the Favre-ophiles will blame anybody and anything EXCEPT Favre.

Jeffrey Clarke raises an excellent point. Most announcers blather because they have time to fill. We get at least 2 hours of coverage before the Sunday games start. Then there is time to fill before the Sunday night game and again on Monday there is at least an hour to fill. What else can they say on Monday which hasn't been said on Sunday.

But the reason that announcers get away with saying nonsense is that because most viewers aren't thinking about what they are hearing. Many viewers don't really know the game, don't know the rules. I'll go so far as to say they don't care really care. they just some time filled. They just want the noise. If you remember the experiment the NFL tried a number of years ago of televising a game with no announcers nor commentary, you will recall the experiment died. There was too much dead air and the viewers didn't know what was going on.

What's particularly galling about the Berman remarks is that it ignores that the gentleman who taught the Jets how to win was Bill Parcells. In the 12 years (not counting this one) since Parcells came to the Jets, they have had 8 winning seasons, 5 playoff appearances, and only three seasons with 6 or fewer wins. Parcells' influence on the team is still felt today in both GM Mike Tannenbaum, a Parcells disciple who started as the salary-cap man for Bill.

I was tired of the Favre brown nosing one quarter into the 49er-Vikes game on Sunday. I was wondering if Madden had somehow snuck into the booth to do commentary. The worst part was that the Niners lost. The second worst? The win will be known as a great come from behind drive by Favre, instead of the officiating meltdown that it was. Just what we needed. Another reason for the announcers to talk about Favre.

Being raised on Long Island as a devout Jets fan, I can assuredly say that the suffering associated with what Mangini and Favre put us through last season was much, much worse, than any previous horrific losing seasons that the Jets have produced in the past twenty years. Chad Pennington, Vinny Testeverde, Herman Edwards and Wayne Chrebet were 100 times the men Favre was in New York. If anything can be grandiosely attributed to the Jets success, it is the legacy and tradition that these players established in the early 2000's. And as a side note, it is about time that the stat guys start to take over game analysis so as to stop the rest of these journalists from having no better content than statements like this to embarass themselves any further.

I wish they could try it again. Suggestions:1. Put little video pop-ups on the players entering (or leaving)after the play. (Wouldn't be a bad idea with announcers)

2. Also the above on the skill players when they line up at line of scrimmage. (Squeeze fantasy stats in if possible)

3. Have a win game probability screen shown as we come back from commercials.

4. Have bloggers do the pre/half/end time show

5. Old school: No ticker on the bottom of the screen. Just the score and time of the game.

6. Of course you got mic the field for the sounds of the game. ("This quarter's FCC fines are being paid by GEICO")

7. Perfect game on the schedule Friday night December 25th. SD-@ TENN What boss would ask his employees to work on Xmas nite? NFL network is the broadcaster. (Between the 4 networks that have games; NFL Network is probably the one that would take a chance with this. A five percent chance, but more than the others.)

That would be pretty interesting...if there were multiple audio feeds for a game.

I do want to listen to somebody. The experiment with no announcer didn't work because anybody can do that on their own. All you have to do is adjust the volume. An announcer is an option you can always decline. My problem with announcers isn't that they exist. My problem is that they tend to spout off cliched bullshit instead of giving real analysis.

It would be interesting to have one announcer team that was all "momentum, heart, clutch, etc. etc" and another that was all Xs and Os. People could choose. While I know what I would choose, I also can bet that the majority of football fans would choose the opposite. I guess the bottom line as to why sabermetrics isn't mainstream is that most people don't want to do algebra on their day off.

Hahahaha, Brian, you have made my day. I have to say that this is the most entertaining post that I have ever read from you. From any-old-blogger, this post would be bland and worthless, but from you it's classic. You are a guy who has built an amazing tradition for doing serious, thoughtful, QUANTITATIVE analysis on all manner of football aphorisms. Yet even you, with all your academic acumen, can't help but to cry "B.S.!" when the Favre-worshipers start spewing their ridiculous colloquialisms.

Thanks again, Brian. I'm glad to see that even you have a few moments when you have to throw a shoe at the TV and yell "WTF?"

@BBurkeESPN

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